Thrice Defied Him
by Caspian28
Summary: Starting out as one shots of James and Lily through the years at Hogwarts (two chapters per year - one for each Lily's and James' POV). If it's popular enough, instead of doing one shots of their seventh year I'll write a story for their whole year and the time following that, up to and including their deaths.
1. First Year - Lily

**A/N: In my story, there are going to be more students in each year than we're used to. This is because Voldemort wiped out so many people during his reign (that's why there are so few students in the post-war Hogwarts that Harry and co attend). There still aren't as many as the castle can hold, partially because there are two other wizarding schools but also because lots of the wizards and witches during James and Lily's time would have been recovering from Grindlewald. So, in this story, classes are still mixed between houses, but there are multiple classes per year per house (i.e. in Harry's Hogwarts, there are only two classes per year with two houses in each class; sometimes less in NEWT level classes. In Lily's Hogwarts, there will still be, say, mixed Slytehrn and Gryffindor or Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff classes, or any other combination thereof of houses to encourage interhouse unity, but there would be multiple mixes of each per year). If this doesn't make sense I can always clarify more!**

First Year - Lily  


"I did NOT say that!" Lily Evans shouted indignantly into the phone.

"You did, you admitted it. You think James Potter is cute," came the voice of her best female friend, Marlene McKinnon from the other end.

"That is _not_ what I said," she groaned, falling back so she was lying on her back on the couch. "James Potter is an arrogant, bullying, slimy-"

"But cute," interjected Marlene.

"Not cute."

"LILY," came the voice of her mother from the kitchen, presumably. "Get off that phone, I need it!"

Lily sighed theatrically. "I gotta go, Mar. I'll see you on the Hogwarts Express tomorrow, okay?"

"See ya Lils!"

There was a click as Marlene hung up the phone. Lily had only been gone from Hogwarts for a week, but was already missing the castle and her friends. She had explained to Marlene how to use a phone (her parents, both being wizards, had never needed one), and Marlene had been using her next door neighbour's phone every day of the break so she and Lily could talk. Lily had made quite a few friends in her first few months at Hogwarts, but other than Severus, Marlene was her best friend.

"You kids and these telephones," said her mom, chuckling as she came into the room. "What's wrong with sending letters?"

"It takes too long, mum," groaned Lily. "Phones are faster than owl post, even."

Her mother rolled her eyes in response which Lily took that as her cue to leave. "I'm gonna go see if Sev is around," she said as her mum began dialing the phone.

"Be back before dinner!"

"I will, Mum," Lily responded. At the door, she pulled on her coat and boots to ward off the cold. Her wand remained in her room, as it always did when she was at home. She couldn't use magic outside of school and besides, it didn't seem fair to rub the fact that she was a witch in Petunia's face. Severus would probably be appaled that she didn't carry it everywhere, but then again, he hadn't grown up as a muggle.

She was nearing the park at Spinner's End when she spotted him sitting alone on one of the swings. Lily smiled secretively. At Hogwarts, she had been sorted into Gryffindor and Sev into Slytherin. They didn't often have classes together, and many of the Gryffindors didn't approve of the Slytherins. Her time with Severus had been reduced to studying in the library after classes, which was a disappointment to Lily. After all, he had been the person to teach her about the Wizarding World and prepare her for Hogwarts. He was her first friend from the wizarding world, not to mention her best friend.

"Sev," she called out when she got close enough. He turned and smiled at her. It was snowing, so his black hair had flecks of white in it and he looked cold. But his black eyes lit up when he saw her, anyways.

"How has your day been?" he asked as she sat down beside him.

"It was okay. Tuney was at a friend's house all day, though. And I'm leaving tomorrow, so I doubt I'll see mcuh of her before I go," responded Lily sadly. Petunia had been scarce all break. Lily understood that she was jealous, but it still hurt to not have her older sister around.

"I'm sorry," he responded, but she noticed the almost minute eye-roll that followed the apology. Severus, of course, did not approve of Petunia's jealousy in the slightest.

"How were things at home today?" she responded with a change in topic.

"Okay." He shrugged non-commitally. "It'll be good to be back at school."

She nodded and they lapsed into silence for a few minutes. Lily looked out at the park. It was rather dismal in the winter – much nicer in the summer. She and Tuney used to play in it all the time. And, it was the place where she first met Sev, and where she first discovered she could do magic.

"I know one thing that won't be good about being back," she said as her thoughts strayed to the conversation she had had with Marlene earlier.

"Potter and Black?" responded Severus levelly.

"Got it in one," said Lily with a groan.

A couple hours later, she returned to her house to find that Petunia was still out. She ate quickly with her parents before heading up to her room, determined to get a head start on some of the material they would be covering in class after the break.

The next time she looked up from _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration_ it was dark out. She stacked the book neatly back into her trunk where everything was already packed and slipped out the door to her room.

The hallway was dark and quiet. She felt her way along it until her hand hit a familiar doorknob. Turning it slowly, she entered Petunia's dark room. She had done this so many times throughout her life that she knew the layout of Tuney's room like the back of her hand, so creeping through the dark to Petunia's bed wasn't a challenge at all.

She shook Petunia awake and whispered, "sleepover?"

Petunia's response was to grunt in annoyance, but she did roll over and leave space for Lily in the bed. Lily crawled in, wishing, not for the first time, that her sister could come to Hogwarts, too.


	2. First Year - James

First Year – James

"-Greasy, slimy git that he is," James finished with a puff of anger. He was lounging sideways in one of the chairs by the fire in the common room – the most comfortable chair, actually. The upper years were all on the last Hogsmeade trip of the year, so the first and second years had the common room to themselves, which meant, of course, that James got his favourite chair.

"Hear hear!" responded Sirius enthusiastically. He was lying spread eagled on the ground, his slightly long black hair flopping behind him and sticking up at odd angles. Similarly to James, it often didn't lie flat (although, James suspected Sirius caused it to stand up intentionally).

"Can we _please_ talk about something other than your budding obsessions with Snivellus?" groaned Remus. He was curled up on one end of the couch by the fire. Peter, on the other end, nodded feverishly in agreement.

"Fine then," sighed Sirius. "What about why you disappear every month?"

Remus rolled his eyes but James and Peter both perked up instantly. This had begun the boys' favourite new game, to spring the question on Remus whenever he was least expecting it. After all, a bloke's best mates were going to notice if a bloke disappeared once a month all year.

"I told you," he said in exasperation, "my mum was sick this month. Dumbledore let me go home and see her."

"Yes, yes," responded Sirius with a wave of his hand. "And the month before that it was your dad, and before that your grandmother. We're not daft you know."

"It's true, they-"

"Would you three stop bugging him?" came a lofty voice from the portrait hole. James twisted his head so he could see behind the back of the chair, and saw none other than a very amused Marlene McKinnon and a very frustrated Lily Evans standing behind him. He also didn't miss the grateful look Remus shot Lily when she had spoken up.

"Oi!" exclaimed James, suddenly angry. "How come she knows, but we," he gestured wildly to himself, Sirius, and Peter, "your best mates, don't?"

"She doesn't know anything," said Remus quietly. James watched closely the look that passed between Remus and Lily.

"You're lying," he said. "She knows."

"I don't," she responded in the same lofty voice. She had rounded the common room as James was talking so she was standing behind Remus instead of behind James. "I just happen to think that people are entitled to their privacy, Potter. Clearly it's not something you would understand."

With that, Lily spun on her heel and walked with Marlene up the staircase towards the girls dormitory, leaving James spluttering in disbelief.

"Can't believe – entitled to privacy…best mates, bah."

"So you don't think I'm entitled to my privacy?" asked Remus mildly.

"He has a point, you know," put in Peter. "Remus, I mean."

Sirius, James noticed was staying decidedly silent, and only shrugged in response to James' questioning look. Remus, though, seemed to have caught on.

"I think I'm going to go study," he finally said. "Exams coming up and all. Want to join me, Pete?"

"Sure, can we go over defence? Only, you're really good at it and I can never make the spells work."

"Course, Pete," James heard Remus say as they walked away. "We'll do disarming first, yeah?"

When they had left for the library, James kicked Sirius in the side. "Let's go for a walk, yeah?"

They left the common room in silence and wandered through the halls, meandering their way towards the Entrance Hall so they could take their well-used path around the lake to their favourite tree. James glanced over at Sirius, who seemed to be deep in thought.

Once they got outside, though, he perked up. Nudging James at the shoulder, he said, "Bet I can beat you to the willow," and tore off in the direction of the lake. James followed, running as fast as he could to catch up to Sirius and soon outstripped him, though just barely. They both collapsed in a heap at the base of the tree by the lake.

"I don't want to go home," Sirius said once he had sat up and caught his breath.

"I know, mate," James responded, regarding his best friend with concern. Sirius had hardly been home in their first year. He spent the majority of his time during the Christmas and Easter breaks at James' house, although he had appeared at home occasionally. "Regulus is still there, though. You shouldn't leave him alone. You might make a Gryffindor of him yet," said James with a small smile.

"I won't, you know I wont. He's already mum's favourite. He'll be a Slytherin, through and through, just to make her proud. Imagine – my little brother hanging around Snivellus next year. Good thing Bella was gone before we even got here, and Cissa's not evil enough to be dangerous. Too bad Dromeda's graduating this year."

Sirius often said that Andromeda Black was his favourite cousin. James also particularly liked Andromeda, from the few occasions he had met her. She was a Slytherin, just like the rest of the Black family, but wasn't particularly mean. She had no inclination towards the Dark Arts, either. Although, if James though about it, this must be true of at least a couple of the other Slytherins. Andromeda had friends, after all. But Slytherins like her didn't just pop up everywhere. Snivellus and his already forming gang were proof of that.

"I'm going to come to yours sometime this summer," James finally said. To his surprise, Sirius outright cringed in response.

"You can't do that," he said.

"You can't stop me," retorted James. "Plus, I want to meet Regulus. See if he's as hopeless as you say he is." Sirius didn't look convicned that this was a good idea at all. "I learned how to do a Permanent-Sticking Charm earlier this year," James said finally. "I'll come over and we can stick anything that'll annoy your parents to your room. They won't be able to get it down." James grinned at Sirius, and Sirius' face morphed from a frown to a small, sly grin back.

What he didn't tell Sirius, however, was that he hadn't learned the spell by himself. After Easter, he had approached McGonagall to ask. He supposed that Professor Flitwick would have been the better option, but going to his Head of House had seemed like a better idea at the time. She was reluctant to teach him how it worked, until he, somewhat begrudgingly, explained what he wanted to do for Sirius (or, rather, Sirius' room). To his surprise, once he had explained, McGonagall had helped him learn the charm to perfection, all the while with the ghost of a smile on her normally stern face.

Sirius' face fell again, though. "Won't we get caught? We can't do magic-"

"Are you daft?" asked James incredulously. "They can't trace the magic to the user, just the place. If you're in a house full of wizards, no one will know who cast the spell. They won't suspect two twelve year olds of being able to cast a charm like that anyway."

"Wicked," said Sirius, grinning again. "I didn't realize we could – I mean, you never do at your house."

"That's because my parents would probably report me to the ministry if I ever did," said James, with a noise somewhere between a groan and a chuckle. He knew enough to tell his parents generally spoiled him, but magic outside of school was one of the few things they didn't tolerate at all.

"You know," he said after a long moment's silence, "if things ever get too bad, just floo to my house, yeah? The fireplace in my room. Mum and Dad won't mind."

At that, Sirius' face broke into a real, genuine smile. They sat for a few more minutes, before James broke the silence once again.

"What do you say we go find the others? I think we have an end of year prank to plan." James stood up and reached out his hand to pull Sirius, who was wearing a devilish smile, to his feet.

"I have a great idea for this one, trust me," Sirius said. "Everyone will remember it all summer."

And with that, they took off in a sprint back towards the castle. After a quick stop at the kitchen to grab some food (they had discovered the entrance within their first couple weeks) they took off toward their dormitory, where Peter and Remus were already waiting. The four talked far into the night, James and Sirius sitting on Sirius' bed, Remus on his own bed, and Peter on the floor. Eventually, they all fell asleep where they were sitting, James and Sirius almost on top of one another in their bed, each secretly wishing that the other had been born his brother, not just his best mate.


	3. Second Year - Lily

Year Two – Lily

Lily shut her books with a sigh. Sev had been studying with her, but he left with Avery and Mulciber less than an hour ago and she couldn't focus anymore. Instead, she looked around the library. It was nearing Christmas, so most of the library was full of OWL and NEWT students who had more work than the rest of the school. Everyone else was probably outside taking advantage of the snow.

"Hey Lils," came a voice from beside her. She turned to find Remus standing awkwardly by her table. They often studied together, but when she was with Severus, as she was before, he usually sat a good distance away.

"Hey," she smiled at him. Remus was by far her favourite, if it came to comparing James, Sirius, Peter, and him, although she supposed Peter wasn't so bad either. The four of them had taken to calling themselves "the Maurauders" this year. Lily had no idea why they called themselves this, but she assumed it had something to do with their many nighttime wanderings. They had never really hidden the fact that they wandered around at night, but somehow, they never got caught either.

"D'you mind if I talk to you for a minute?" Remus asked quietly, slipping into a chair beside her.

"Sure," she said, shutting her book with a resounding thump. "I can't focus anyways."

Remus had become, other than Severus, her closest friend in their second year. Marlene was still her closest female friend and was planning on staying with Lily over Christmas (Lily would stay with her during Easter), but she was not often around at school, having made the Gryffindor quidditch team as a chaser even though she was only in second year. She had also gotten quite close with Sirius, whose company Lily could not stand.

Remus looked around, almost worriedly, and leaned in closely to talk to Lily. She knew what was coming before he said it; it wasn't the first time they had had this conversation.

"Do you _really_ think I should tell the others about my…well, you know." He looked at her helplessly, but she knew what he was trying to say.

"You mean, that whole thing where you don't have a family member falling ill once a month, every month?"

Lily, of course, hadn't missed the signs that he was a werewolf. It had only taken her a few months to put it all together, but she wasn't particularly surprised. It explained why he looked slightly off a lot of the time. She hadn't confronted him about it, though, until the conversation she and James had had in first year about staying out of Remus' business. Ever since then, she'd been trying to convince him to tell his friends that he was, in fact, a werewolf.

He smiled wanely at her. "Yeah, that."

"You know I think you should, Rem. I don't like any of them much, but I know they won't care. You're they're best mate."

Instead of looking comforted, Remus looked even worse. "You don't understand, Lils," he said finally. "You're muggleborn, and that's not a bad thing," he added hastily when he saw her look. "It means you grew up without all the prejudices of the wizarding world. No one likes werewolves, Lily. It's a miracle Dumbledore even let me in. I already know I'm not going to be able to find a job after I graduate. No one will let me once I'm a werewolf."

"Right," cut in Lily, "but that's all to do with the future. You can figure that all out later. That doesn't have anything to do with your best mates."

"Yes it does," he responded, sounding desperate for her to understand. "Sirius and James, they're both purebloods. They'll have those prejudices because that's how they grew up."

Lily couldn't help but scoff at that. "Remus, think about it logically. They're not my favourite people in the world, but even I can admit that they're not all bad. They don't believe in all that blood supremacy garbage anyway. If they don't hate me for being muggleborn, why would they hate you for being a werewolf?"

"Because it's _different_ ," he responded with a moan. "Muggleborns are one thing, but at least you can still get jobs and you're not treated any worse to your face. Werewolves are, Lils. It's not the same." Remus had slumped so his head was resting on his arms, which were folded on the table. Lily slid over and tentatively put a hand on his back.

"You're right, Rem, it is different. But it's not because you're a werewolf. It's because, unlike the rest of the wizarding world, you're friends with them. They know you and they're not going to throw that away just because you turn into a wolf once a month. They're good people, even if they're idiots. I never thought I'd say this, but especially Sirius. He broke away from the beliefs of his entire family by himself, without outside influence. You really think he'd be bothered that you're a werewolf?"

Remus finally looked up at her and smiled slightly. "You're right, you know. I still don't know if I can tell them, though. Not yet."

"Why don't we set a goal?" asked Lily practically. "A goal with a consequence. That always helps me when I have to do things I don't want to do."

"So is that how you get through Binns' homework then," asked Remus jokingly.

"Maybe, but don't tell anyone. This is a very important Lily Evans secret that I'm letting you in on." She grinned.

"I won't, I won't," he responded, raising his hands in mock surrender. "What's my goal, then?"

"You have to tell them before the end of our second year. That gives you a lot of time to figure it all out."

"Fine, and what's my consequence?"

"What, wounding your Gryffindor pride isn't enough of a consequence for you?"

Remus laughed at that. "Please, Lils, I'm not James or Sirius. I can do with my pride being wounded every once in a while."

"Fine. If you don't, I'll tell them myself." Remus' only response was to grimace. "And I'll hex you," she added as an afterthought.

"Lily! That's not fair!" exclaimed Remus, loudly enough that Madam Pince, the librarian, shushed them loudly. "The first part was enough."

"Well then," she said with a twinkle in her eye, "I guess that means that you have double the incentive to not fail, don't you?"

Remus' only response was to groan.

"What's wrong with _him_?" came a voice from Lily's other side. She turned to see Sirius, smiling amusedly down at both of them.

"He's just suffered a very severe disappointment," said Lily, forgoing the use of the lofty voice she typically reserved specially for James and Sirius. She was determined to drop enough hints over the next year that Remus would be forced to tell his friends that he was a werewolf. And that could only happen if she was at least somewhat friendly with Black and Potter.

"And what sort of disappointment could bad enough to put Remus out of good cheer?" asked Black, a look of fake shock and horror on his face.

"I just found out that she – what was it, Lils? She thinks you're a good person." Lily turned to Remus in shock. He was grinning rather triumphantly. Comeuppance for the threat of a hex, she supposed. "Which is obviously bad for me, because how will I have time to study with Lily if we have you tagging along everywhere we go? Since, you know, she doesn't hate you and all."

Lily was glaring daggers at Remus. Sirius clearly noticed, but chose to ignore it and instead called, "Oi! James, Peter!" louldy enough to cause Madam Pince to "shush" them particularly violently. James and Peter emerged from behind a bookshelf, clearly arguing about something.

"What is it?" asked James, almost wearily. He was eyeing Lily as though she might explode at any second.

"Evans thinks I'm a good person," said Sirius, grinning as broadly as if he had just singlehandedly won the Quidditch Cup.

"How do you know that?" he asked suspiciously.

"She told Remus, and Remus told me. Just now," Black responded smugly.

James snorted in poorly disguised laughter and then turned to Remus. "So, if Sirius is a 'good person', what am I, 'a bloke of godly proportions'? The most amazing person Evans knows?"

Lily caught Remus' eye with a glare, but he just grinned back at her.

"She doesn't like you particularly," responded Remus blithely.

James' spluttering and Sirius' roaring laughter was enough have Madam Pince enchant their books to chase them out of the library. And while she would have liked to stay and study, Lily realized that maybe the Mauraders weren't _all_ so bad after all.


End file.
